Stocks nosedive as investors exit market fearing further losses

Breaking the three days of gaining streak, Dhaka stocks nosedived yesterday as investors opted to liquidate their holdings to protect their funds following a month-long bearish sentiment in the market.

Besides, most of the scrips were still stuck at their floor prices, making investors reluctant to take fresh bets in fear of the less possibility of the recovery of these ailing stocks, analysts say.

The DSES, the benchmark index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), fell 10.46 points or 0.169 per cent to settle at 6,260 against 6,271 points in the previous trading session.

Among other indices, the DSES, the Shariah-based index, dropped 0.167 points or 2.23 per cent to close at 1,372, and the DS30, the blue-chip index, lost 3.62 points or 0.163 per cent to finish the session at 2,208.

Meanwhile, the prime bourse witnessed a significant fall in participation, while the turnover declined by 30.2 per cent to Tk 430 crore against the tally of Tk 616 crore in the previous session.

The market could not sustain the positive momentum from the past few sessions of the week as investors perceived every bounce back as an opportunity to exit the bearish market, said EBL Securities, a stockbroker, in its daily market review.

Moreover, cautious investors were yet to regain confidence on the trading floor as the dismal performance forecasts of the majority of listed companies exacerbated their concerns about the market outlook, it stated.

The pharma & chemicals sector topped the turnover chart with a contribution of 24.1 per cent, followed by the IT (12.4 per cent) and the fuel & power (11.2 per cent).

Most of the sectors displayed dismal returns at the Dhaka bourse with the IT suffering the most with a loss of 1.9 per cent, followed by services (1.1 per cent) and paper (0.9 per cent).

On the other hand, the jute sector posted the highest gain of 6.2 per cent at the Dhaka bourse, followed by ceramic (0.2 per cent) and travel (0.2 per cent).

Out of the issues traded, 27 stocks advanced, 68 scrips declined, and 295 issues did not see any movement on the DSE trading floor.

The port city bourse, Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), also closed lower yesterday with its two major indices – the selected indices (CSCX), and the all share price index (CASPI) – declining by 9.7 points and 16.1 points respectively.